Kindle Market Share Drops, But Don't Cry For Amazon

A report from ChangeWave shows that the Amazon Kindle’s market share is down 15 points since February. The reason? The iPad joined the e-book market. But, before Kindle owners begin to worry about their device’s future in the market, recognize the story behind the story.

Sure, the iPad has bitten into the Kindle’s market share. Leaders see drops in market share all the time when a worthy competitor joins their ranks. This happens naturally in a free market system.

This doesn’t mean Amazon should be worried, nor are they likely to be. As the Kindle’s market share has dropped, the number of devices sold has remained stellar.

Think about it. The iPad comes out, and millions have sold. Percentage is zero-sum; a new competitor on the market will almost always decrease the points owned by the market leader, but that doesn’t mean that people are buying it instead of the market leader. The Kindle is selling like crazy, and so is the iPad…The iPad has simply added to the total number of people who identify as owning an e-reader, and because of its immense success (which I am in no way trying to deny), it has skewed the numbers.

The iPad has actually added to the readership of e-books overall. Therefore, both devices are doing quite well because of the iPad’s entry into the e-book market.

Besides, the devices aren’t really true competitors. The Kindle is an e-book reader first, while the iPad is something more. No one is going to mistake one for the other, especially with the price points of each where they are today.

So yeah, the Kindle’s overall market share has dropped, but this doesn’t mean too much in the long run. The more e-books that are sold, the better it is for both companies. In the end, Amazon probably doesn’t care if readers of e-books are reading books purchased from them for use on the Kindle device or on the iPad.